Catholic Social Teaching:

Te Mana o te Tangata

Great Examples: Stories of Hope

Mental health and well-being is a very prevalent matter in our society. New Zealand has one of the worst suicide rates in the world and the stigma around mental health makes it a challenge to talk about. Whether you experience any challenges with mental health or know someone that does, it’s very easy to lose sight of the innate human dignity that we all have. 

Have a read through how Josh and Sinead both realised the innate dignity that they and others have, despite the challenges that they have had to face.

Human dignity is something very important in the world and most importantly in the eyes of God. For young people today we try so hard to fit into society while trying to prove ourselves to the social normality.

For myself, I had trouble really finding my value in this world during my high school years. I always questioned why I was born the way I was which is being significantly shorter than everyone else and always compared my life with the wealth, clothes, the social activities and the apparent happiness of everyone else.

The impact this took on my mental health was catastrophic, my physical health worsened as well as my relationships with my family and friends. The way I got my mental health back on track was through understanding my worth in the eyes of God.

The Church says that the dignity of the human person is rooted in his or her creation in the image and likeness of God our creator. Even every time we celebrate the mass, the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist reminds us of Christs sacrifice on the cross for each and everyone of us. Not just certain people of certain shape, hair colour or ethnicity. When we put our human dignity in our creator who sacrificed himself for us, we find true security and develop a healthy self-esteem and can experience His love way more.

I was 12 when I first thought about taking my own life. I did not fully understand why, but I knew that I was broken, and sad, and the future seemed bleak. I am now 30, I have my own beautiful family, I have a job that is fulfilling, and 3 months ago out of nowhere I suffered from a mild stroke. Today, I think I have lots of excuses to be sad, to feel broken, to see a bleak future but I am not broken or sad and my future is full of hope. I am thankful for the challenges of life and the realization that I am made in the image and likeness of God and I have an innate human dignity.

When I was a child and a teenager I measured my worth on the socio-economic pressures around me. It limited my sight – my ability to see or know how I should be treated. I measured my worth on the comments or the behaviours of others. This blind-sighted me, it objectified me, it turned me into something – not someone. The high rate of suicide in our society is one of many indications that we are called to uphold and value human dignity for every individual. At its core, human dignity acknowledges that every human life is sacred.

When I was 21, I had a transformational encounter with the merciful face of Christ. It was in a Dublin city Hospital while working as a student chaplain: Christ revealed to me the image of himself in every individual I encountered. My first week walking on to the wards was overwhelming. One patient in particular always stands out. I walked into her ward, she raised her hand, she was waving furiously at me, and as I approached – before I even sat down beside her bed she said to me: “I want to die, if someone doesn’t move me soon I will take my own life”.  Surprisingly to me, I was overcome with her honesty and I felt a sense of calm. I sat down, I smiled, and I started to listen to her. I soon found out that this lady had been in the hospital over 100 days. She lay on her bed day in and day out, watching people come and go, people suffer and die, and she was still here. She had been there so long, she felt she was just part of the furniture. Other than seeing medical staff, I was the first visitor in a long time who sat beside her, listened, and talked to her. It was very clear to me that she had spent so long feeling ignored, that everything seemed hopeless.

She was elderly and it did not surprise me that she wanted to prepare for death, but it did shock me that she was prepared to take her own life. I often ponder on why she felt like this. She was sitting in a ward full of people, but she was alone and isolated. As humans we are created for relationships, we need other people, we need support and love and to be cared for, and we need purpose, the ability to give back and to serve someone else. This lady had lost all of that. Her human dignity, the ability to see the sacredness of her life, to be acknowledged as a “someone” not a “something”.

I was overcome with empathy; myself and this lady were at total different stages of life, but I had felt like this before and I knew that we are all called to be responsible stewards of the gift of life, share our experiences and uphold a common good. Jesus’ ministry wills an inclusive message to those who feel withdrawn from their community. He acknowledged the suffering that people who felt like outcasts experienced. Jesus invites people who are suffering back into human society through his healing word. Christ’s model of ministry was pro-active, he confronted issues when they arose.

I journeyed with this patient for two months. I sat with her and listened to her, heard her wonderful stories of her life, we entered amazing dialogue. I spoke to her about the word of God, the suffering and salvation of Christ, how suffering has immense value, and death is not our end goal - the hope and promise of eternal life is the goal. We talked about the fact that we are made in the image and likeness of the Creator. I spoke to her about the teachings and reflections of John Paul II. John Paul II emphasized in the Reflections of Humanae Vitae, “he [God] breathed into his nostrils a breath of life and thus man became a living being”. We talked about the concept of the ‘breath of God’ as a life-giving spirit given by God in a unique manner to all human beings. John Paul II again emphasizes God’s Spirit “Comes to inhabit the human being. Human dignity exists in the Bible because humans possess God’s Life.’

I became a vessel of hope in her crisis of hope. We are all called to this, we are all called to acknowledge the face of Christ in everyone we encounter.

As I continue to work in living out the life and mission of the church, understanding and communicating the concept that we are all made in the image and likeness of God is key to the call to respect and to be good stewards of human dignity. I think acknowledging that human dignity is innate, and no one has the right to take that away is important. Human dignity is given freely by God through Christ’s mission on earth. I think the challenge is that the pressures of life can distort this and easily make us complacent. Two things from my experience of upholding human dignity we can all commit to is (1) always search for hope – hope is an active response to negative experiences in life; (2) do not forget the significance of dialogue.